


Lyokostar 1: Story 6: Wounds That Never Disappear

by WindySilver



Series: Lyokostar 1 [12]
Category: Code Lyoko
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:40:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24960214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindySilver/pseuds/WindySilver
Summary: X.A.N.A.'s daily attacks start to be too much for Mary's tolerance and the girl decides to give up the fight. William tries to make her change her mind but things don't go like they do in the movies. What will happen now?
Relationships: Jeremie Belpois/Aelita Schaeffer, Odd Della Robbia/Original Female Character(s), Original Character/Original Character, Yumi Ishiyama/Ulrich Stern
Series: Lyokostar 1 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805602
Collections: Lyokostar





	1. Decision

**Author's Note:**

> This is the last part that's been translated at the time of posting. For info on the next part's status, check out my project widget here: https://windysilver.net/portfolio/my-current-projects-widget/

Months have passed by. Months full of the same old fight: an attack, an attack, attacks endlessly. One of the Lyoko Warriors no longer could stand the daily fighting; after all, there was more than just fighting against X.A.N.A. in life. Or at least there should be.

X.A.N.A. had kept the group on their toes with its daily attacks. One day, when the day's attack had been neutralized, this Lyoko Warrior met her limit and said, "I can't take this any longer! Attacks, attacks without an end! I'm resigning and leaving Kadic!"  
"No! Mary, don't!" William cried out. He did not want to lose the friend he could trust absolutely. He did not feel that he could trust anyone else so unwaveringly.  
"I can't do anything else anymore. I'll go mad at this rate. Forgive me," Mary said, hardly feeling any remorse, and left.  
"We have to stop her! We need her, we need everyone here! And X.A.N.A. follows her everywhere even if she leaves us! She doesn't fare against it alone if it attack her!" Sophie said, anxious.  
"I'll go after her," William said and hurried after the girl.

Mary had just gotten to the school from the sewers when William caught her. However, Mary did not notice him nor listen even though William tried to talk to her. She did not want to hear a single word about Lyoko or anything at all anymore.

William grabbed Mary's hand so that she would not get to go any further.  
"Mary, if you leave, you'll be in trouble with X.A.N.A. if it attacks you. It'll follow you everywhere, no matter where you go. Even if you leave the group, it'll still follow you," William said. Reminding about the matter felt like his only straw. With Mary, appealing to friendship might not necessarily work. After all, the girl had fared alone on Lyoko for years.  
"I'll do fine against X.A.N.A. even if it strikes me from behind. I can no longer take the fight against it when each day we have to go to Lyoko and back because of an active tower. I can't take it anymore. There has to be more in life than fighting," Mary said. William let go of her hand. He tried to find something he could still appeal to. Then he remembered what Sophie had said.  
"Mary, we need you. We can't do this without you. Don't leave," William said hoping that it would be enough. _If only feeling that she is essential in our lines would be enough!_  
"I can't do anything else, because it's not good to lose your mind just because of a stupid computer program. When I leave, I leave the past here and forget Lyoko, X.A.N.A., everything that's related to this life, completely everything, and start a new life without dangers. And you get the place of the strongest Lyoko Warrior back to yourself, just as it's supposed to be," Mary said. "After all, I was never supposed to end up on Lyoko in the first place, you know it yourself as well."

After a brief consideration, William realized that he could do nothing to stop Mary. The girl had made her unwavering decision.  
"Well, then I guess I have to forget everything you did to help me, too. That you supported me when the others pushed me away, everything about you, absolutely everything," William said, his voice breaking.

It took a while for Mary to realize what William had said, but when she did, he had already left.  
"I'm a hopeless moron!" Mary huffed, frustrated by her own weakness. Realizing now that she could not leave, that she could never leave and leave it all behind herself, she returned to her room. There she collapsed onto her bed and pulled the blanket over herself, hoping that it was all just a nightmare. At the same time, however, she knew that it was all too real.

Although, she did see nightmares as well after falling asleep as well. In those dreams, the past on Earth and the past on Lyoko blended into a sadistic mess which made no sense.

Even deep sleep did not give her a break from fighting that night.


	2. Disbelief

Suddenly, the nightmares broke off when Mary woke up, gasping. Because the sun shone inside, she looked at the clock. Half past six.  
 _Sophie will wake up in half an hour._ Mary decided not to wake her roommate up and instead went to take a shower. Before that, however, she left a note on the inside of her room's door which said, _I'm not leaving after all. I'll explain later._ She would have the time to explain the situation to everyone communally at breakfast, but it was for the best to make sure that there would be no misunderstandings from her not being in the bed anymore.

After the shower, when Mary brushed her teeth, she looked at her face in the mirror. Despite of sleeping, she was pale and the dark circles stood out even better than normally. Because there were still relatively few people in the bathroom, she could just stand, look at her reflection and think that there was the moron who imagined that she could get rid of the fight against X.A.N.A. by giving up and abandoning her only working relationships. Where had she even thought she could go from Kadic when she had not reached her father?

It was hard to believe that she had been so stupid. What had she even thought yesterday? She should have known better.

Mary shook her head and stated that pondering did not help. She should put things back in order.

X.A.N.A. decided to disagree. When Mary touched the tap, an electric shock struck her and Milly, who was just using the adjacent tap. Both girls fainted while the others in the same space shouted in fright.  
"Milly!" Tamiya cried out and hurried to her friend's side.

Sophie and Eleonora, who were coming to the bathroom, heard the cries and ran the rest of the way there. After opening the door, they saw Mary, who was sprawled on the floor, first.  
"Mary!" they exclaimed at the same time. They hurried to their unconscious friend's side.  
"What happened?" Eleonora asked the others.  
"They got a shock from the taps!" Tamiya told, terrified. Sophie and Eleonora looked at each other, frightened. They both knew what could have caused the electric shock.  
"We need to get them to the infirmary," Sophie stated. "Can you carry Milly?"  
"I-I don't know," Tamiya said.  
"I'll help," some older girl said. She helped Tamiya to lift Milly and the duo went ahead while Sophie and Eleonora lifted Mary and went after them.

After getting to the infirmary, all four of them stayed to wait for information on how bad the shock was.  
"They are in no danger," the nurse came to tell them after a while. "They need to rest, but they got away with mere minor burns to their hands. I'm more worried about the taps they got the shock from."  
"I'll go tell the custodian," the older girl — while waiting, she had said that she was Caroline — said and left the scene.  
"Thank god they didn't get it worse," Sophie sighed.  
"You had better tell Jim if Mary or Milly have physical education today. He has been extremely strict about absentees recently," the nurse remarked.  
"Milly doesn't have PE today, so there's no need to worry about that," Tamiya noted. She turned to look at Sophie and Eleonora. "I don't know about Mary, though."  
"I do recall that William might have talked something about a PE lesson yesterday. I guess there's no harm in telling," Eleonora noted.  
"Yeah. Let's go tell him right away so that we can get it over with," Sophie said.

Tamiya went on her way, while the older girl duo sought the PE teacher out and told, what had happened.  
"Got it," Jim grunted and wrote a note about Mary's absence to a notebook. "If you have nothing else, then get going."

It was clear that he was irritated, so Sophie and Eleonora thought it was for the best to leave the scene right away.  
"I wonder why he's like that now," Sophie wondered when the duo returned to get their things from the bathroom.  
"Maybe he's been threatened with getting replaced by a more competent teacher and that's why he's trying to be 'more competent'," Eleonora theorized.  
"That could be it," Sophie remarked. The line to the shower had already grown so long that it was no use for them to even try to get into a shower in time, so they brushed their teeth fast and returned to their rooms.

Once they were back at the corridor, this time in day clothes, Sophie noted, "We should probably tell William that Mary isn't leaving after all."  
"True," Eleonora said. "He's outside. I saw from the window."  
"Okay, let's catch him then before he gets to the cafeteria," Sophie said.

Together, they went out and hoped that the good news would be useful. William had been in a horrendous mood the whole of the previous night, and Ulrich's picking had not helped the situation at all. _What does that moron even have against William anymore when he hasn't even tried to get Yumi's attention for ages?_ Eleonora pondered, peeved, while reminiscing the previous night. Had Charlie not intervened, Ulrich might have well provoked the former Xana Warrior all the way into starting a fight.

Per se, Eleonora would not have minded if Ulrich had gotten his butt kicked, but it would have caused even more friction within the group and problems with the school, so in the end it had been for the best that Charlie had managed to calm the situation down.

William was still sitting on a bench when they got outside, and replied to the greetings with a glare. Sophie gathered her courage and told, "William, listen, Mary has changed her mind. She isn't leaving after all."  
William looked around himself and raised his other eyebrow. "Oh really?"  
"Yes. However, she and Milly got an electric shock at the bathroom, so she's at the infirmary at least until she regains consciousness," Eleonora told.  
William looked at them for a while and scoffed, "You're just saying so that I'd get on a better mood."  
"We're not!" Sophie and Eleonora snapped, both out of step with the other.  
"It's true, ask Jim for instance! We told him and he doesn't even know what Mary planned, and he believed!" Eleonora blurted.  
"Yeah, right, for sure," William grunted.  
"Well don't believe, then!" Sophie snapped, furious at her comrade's attitude and left in anger.  
"Please, believe us!" Eleonora pleaded once more, frustrated, but William left the scene himself. Eleonora spread her arms as a helpless gesture that she had done all she could and left to look for Charlie. Perhaps he could get William to listen.

Nothing came out of the breakfast, when Ulrich glared at William, William glared at everyone and Sophie, Eleonora and Charlie tried to not only get the information about Mary staying to the others, but also prevent William and Ulrich from going at each other's throats. Jeremy and Aelita managed to keep Odd from making the situation worse, but they could do nothing more when Ulrich seemed to once again see William as a threat to his relationship with Yumi now that Mary was not taking away William's attention.

At lessons, William let each word go past his ears. He could not have cared less to sit in classrooms, listening to a topic that did not interest him even normally. First, there was mathematics, then PE, and after that a double lesson of chemistry. Finally, there was music. Knowing that he could not be there doing nothing, William decided to skip class.

The hours passed by. Milly came to during the second lesson, while Mary only woke up after the second chemistry lesson had started.  
"Good, you're finally awake. I was worried already," the nurse noted. "I think you shouldn't go on your lessons today, Mary."  
"Very well. May I go to my room to rest?" Mary asked. Staying in her own room was not a good idea for her plans, but on the other hand she did not want to stay there. The nurse gave her permission after Mary promised to stay in her room, and thus Mary snuck back to the dormitories in her night clothes without anyone noticing.

After changing day clothes on, Mary opened her room's window. She stared at the sky, reminiscing her life in Wales although there was not much to be remembered; she barely remembered anything of her first years of life. The three following ones were somewhat blurred and most likely messed by false memories, but at least she still remembered something of them well.

She took the photo she had hidden in the bookshelf, the one she had kept with herself as a little girl to the last and which had survived her kidnapping as if by a miracle. In the photo, she was with her sister Daphne, her mother, her father, the Welsh pony Moon and the crossbred foal Star. _Star and Dad, I wish I'd get to see you even once more. It's been so long_ , Mary thought. Her mother was already dead, most likely Moon as well, while Daphne had been missing for years, so the longing gnawed her as she looked at that photo. Apparently, none of the contacts had gotten through or gotten a reply, as she and Eleonora had not gotten any sort of response from them.

The Super Scanner alerted, fazing the girl; Mary had quite recently connected her computer to Lyoko's supercomputer's system to get access to it from Kadic. After locating the tower to the Desert Sector, she went to the factory without knowing that William did just the same, although he did so just because he believed that the girl may have gone to Lyoko — that thought he had gotten during the course of the day in desperation.

At the bridge leading to the factory, they noticed each other and Xanafied man who seemed middle-aged. A fight broke out when Mary tried to get her friend enough time to get inside the factory, but William flew off the bridge from the force of a sudden hit. Fortunately, he managed to catch the edge.  
"Oh no!" Mary cried out. She shot the man further away with a fireball and went to help. She managed to help William back on the bridge, but then flew similarly soon herself, when William was getting past. Now X.A.N.A. stopped William from helping Mary, and the girl had to dodge balls of electricity which the Xanafied man threw. Then Mary's hand hit a spot where the concrete crumbled under her weight. She only had the time to say "uh-oh" before she lost her grip and fell into the water.  
"Mary!" William yelled.

Air bubbles came to the spot where Mary had fallen into the water. Mary came to the surface, spat a mouthful of water and shouted to the bridge, "I have fallen into water from higher!"

The Xanafied man aimed to throw electric balls into the water.  
"No!" William shouted and ran towards the man to stop him. He got electrified and fell. Meanwhile, Mary swam towards the shore as fast as possible.

The man turned back towards the edge and prepared for another electric ball.

He did not have the time to shoot it when a white horse ran to the bridge and tackled him all of a sudden. Mary reached the shore and ran towards the bridge to return to the fight. William got up on his feet and looked at the situation, just as astounded and Mary and the Xanafied man.

The horse walked to Mary and stopped in front of her while X.A.N.A. calculated a suitable approach to the situation.  
"Star?" Mary breathed. "Could this be real?"


	3. An Unexpected Revelation

Mary raised her eyes to William and nodded to him. He nodded back and ran inside the factory. The only way to stop that man was deactivating the tower. At the elevator, he sent Jeremy a message about the case; with luck, he could deactivate the tower on his own, but he also might need help.  
"Thanks, Star. Go now so that you won't get hurt. I'll take care of this," Mary said to Star once William had disappeared into the factory and the Xanafied man approached her. Star uttered a sound and fled upon seeing an electric ball. Mary raised a fireball and threw it against the electric ball. The electric ball penetrated the fireball and Mary jumped out of the way. She had to buy some time and hope that no one would go past the factory and see the situation.

At some point, the rest of the group hurried inside the factory. Mary managed to keep the Xanafied man busy so that they got past without a scratch. Soon, the others were helping William, who had been surrounded by monsters. He managed to reach the tower after help had arrived, winged by Super Smoke and desperation. The Xanafied man lost his consciousness upon the tower's deactivation and fell on the concrete bridge.

Star returned to the bridge when the electric and fireballs no longer flew in the air and tried to wake the man up. For the first time since the beginning of the attack, Mary looked at the man properly. He looked familiar even though years had not done him any good.

Star. A familiar-looking man.

Mary's heartbeat stopped slowing down. _It can't be... Just when I was going to leave Kadic..._

The man came to and saw the horse bent over him. He spoke in English, but Mary understood each word; after all, English was her second mother language. "Star... What are you doing here? What happened to me?"

Mary wanted to answer, she truly wanted to answer somehow, but the words got stuck in her throat.

Star turned to look at Mary. The man sat up and looked at the girl, who had frozen in place, in confusion.

Neither of them could believe their eyes. Neither of them dared to believe that it could be possible.

The man spoke first, his voice now barely louder than a whisper. "Mary?"  
Mary's eyes flashed when she heard the familiar pronunciation which none of her French friends had ever gotten right and which her other friends used less and less while trying to adapt to France and the French language. A single word left her lips in disbelief. "Dad?"  
The man stood up. Could this be real? He continued speaking in English. "Where have you been all these years?"  
"I wish I could explain," Mary breathed. "It's such a long story..." For her father, she could reveal the secret without asking the others. For her father... she would tell absolutely everything if it meant that she could finally get in touch with him.

Mary's phone rang. "Excuse me, just a moment." Then she answered the phone in French, "Yes, Jeremy?"  
"Mary, is everything all right?" Jeremy asked.  
"Yes," Mary answered.  
"Shall I launch the Return to the Past?"  
"No!" Mary exclaimed immediately. She knew that Jeremy could not know what was about to happen, but she knew that another chance could never come.  
"Mary? Is everything really all right?" Jeremy asked.  
"Don't launch the Return to the Past," Mary said. Her voice shook more than she would have wanted. "I..." She tried to keep the tears in. "Jeremy, I found my father."

The whole lab was silent for a while. Then Jeremy asked, "The Xanafied man?"  
"Yes," Mary answered. "Please don't launch the Return. I'll never get another chance if you do."

Many looked at one another at the lab, worried. This could endanger their secret.  
"I'll hide what I can. Jeremy, trust me, please," Mary continued.  
"Very well. Do what you can. If our secret becomes endangered, we have to launch the Return nevertheless, understand?"  
"I understand. Thank you, Jeremy. Bye." Mary ended the call and sighed in relief.  
"Is everything all right?" Mary's father asked.  
"It is now, Dad," Mary answered in English. "I can't tell everything that has happened. Can you keep what I can tell a secret?"  
"What exactly is this about?"  
"It... It's a long story. A lot has happened during the last years." Mary looked around herself. "Is there a place where we can talk in peace?"  
"I live nearby. Come," Mary's father said and started to lead his daughter and Star to his home. At the same time, William looked at the situation from the factory's entrance and hoped for the best.

If Mary found her father now, Eleonora would have hope for finding her mother, and they both would have the chance to be happy with their families.


	4. The Lost Years

Jeremiah Wind's house was mediocre at best, but after living inside a computer for years Mary did not plan to complain. She sat at the table opposite to her father and hoped that what she would tell would be enough.  
"What can you tell me, Mary?" Jeremiah asked.  
Mary looked at the table and gathered her thoughts. "I really don't know where to start. I know that the whole story sounds insane, but can you believe me if I tell you?"  
"Of course."  
Mary took a deep breath. "Okay. The short version is that the man who kidnapped me transferred me into a virtual word maintained by a supercomputer, and I was trapped there for years. I finally escaped last summer, and I've been studying at Kadic since then."  
It all sounded insane indeed, but Jeremiah decided to see how far this story would go. "Why haven't you contacted me?"  
"I have!" Mary exclaimed. "I've called, sent emails, letters, messages to the local newspaper... Eleonora and I both have tried to reach at least someone all this time we've been on Earth and I know that the contact information has been right!"  
"None of them have gotten to their destination," Jeremiah stated. "Mary, my dear daughter, if your contacts had gotten to me, I would've replied. But none of them have."  
Mary digested this information for a while in silence. Jeremiah continued, "I don't know how your contacts haven't reached me, but they have not. I swear."  
"They can't all have gotten lost in post..." Now Mary understood why their searches had not borne fruit. "It must've been X.A.N.A... It must have intercepted all the messages."  
"Who is X.A.N.A.?"  
"The artificial intelligence behind my kidnapping. It's still on the loose, so I'm a part of the fight against it. We haven't managed to stop it yet."  
This, too, sounded insane talk. "Where is this supercomputer?"  
"I'm not really allowed to tell that. We've kept this whole thing a secret from unrecruited outsiders until now. The authorities wouldn't understand the matter; shutting the supercomputer down won't stop X.A.N.A., but it will stop us, whereupon it could freely do whatever it wants without anything stopping it." Mary took a deep breath. "Dad, I know that all of this sounds like a lunatic's talks, but I'm telling the truth. The reason why you woke up on the bridge is that X.A.N.A. possessed you and used you to stop us."  
Now at least something made sense. Jeremiah nodded. "As your father, I don't like the idea that you endanger yourself in something I don't understand. Even so, if you have been in it for years, you probably can take care of yourself out there. Is it so?"  
"It is, Dad."  
"Very well." Jeremiah leaned against the back of his chair. "As I said, I don't like the idea, but if you think that we shouldn't tell the authorities about this, I'll trust your judgement and keep this battle a secret. After all, they were of no use back when you and the other children disappeared years ago." He pondered for a moment. "Speaking of other children... have you found them while being in this... virtual world?"  
"Yes. Sophie, Charlie and Eleonora are all three at Kadic as well."

Jeremiah held another break and dared ask then, "What about Daphne?"  
Mary looked at the table again and shook her head. "It's very possible that she's out there somewhere like the rest of us were... but I haven't found her yet."  
"I understand." The information brought more pain, but at least now he knew more. "Thank you, Mary."  
"If she's out there somewhere," Mary said, "I promise I'll find her and bring her home."  
Jeremiah forced a small smile on his face. "I didn't expect anything else. You have grown and certainly changed a lot, too, but you're still Mary."  
Mary mirrored her father's smile. "Can we make up for all these lost years?"  
"Of course we can. I did not expect to see you ever again, so I am not going to throw this gift the world has given us away. You are my daughter and I want to be a part of your life even now that you're almost an adult."

A joy Mary did not remember feeling for ages started to blaze inside the girl. She had already given up hope, but she had a chance to live with her remaining family after all.

If X.A.N.A. had decided to return her father to her life, it had to mean that it wanted Mary to stay near the factory.

Mary would have never believed that she would feel that way, but this once she decided to play into her mortal enemy's hand and accept this gift.

After all, it could not be anything else than a gift.


	5. Family

"How did it go?" William asked when the newer Lyoko Warriors had gathered to his room in the evening.  
"X.A.N.A. has stopped all contact attempts so far. That's why we haven't gotten any replies to our parents," Mary told. "It went... surprisingly well. Dad doesn't like this whole mess, but I managed to convince him that this has to be kept a secret."  
"Does Jeremy know?" Sophie asked.  
"I sent him a text about the Return being unnecessary on the way back," Mary answered.  
"Good," Charlie said.  
"Could he tell anything about my mother?" Eleonora asked.  
"Hardly anything. They have not talked for years."  
"So I can't reach her if X.A.N.A. doesn't allow it?"  
"So it would seem. I'm sorry."  
"It... It's okay. It's not your fault."  
Eleonora said nothing more that night and Mary regretted her words.

On the next day, when the whole group was aware of what Mary's father now knew, Mary headed to the factory and sat at the supercomputer.  
 _"What about Daphne?"  
"It's very possible that she's out there somewhere like the rest of us were... but I haven't found her yet."  
"I understand. Thank you, Mary."  
"If she's out there somewhere, I promise I'll find her and bring her home."  
"I didn't expect anything else. You have grown and certainly changed a lot, too, but you're still Mary."_

Mary could not get the way Eleonora had looked at her that morning out of her mind. Jealousy about the fact that one of them had gotten her family back but the other was doomed to fail did not show in the blue-haired girl's expression, but the eyes told a completely different story.

In addition to that, the promise to her father weighed on her heart even worse when Mary thought about the matter. However, merely staring at the screen would not bring her sister back. It was best to get to work.

Typing filled the silent lab once again, but this time there was someone else than Jeremy at the keyboard.

"Mary?"  
Mary jumped and turned to look to the voice's direction. "Jeremy?"  
"What are you doing here?" Jeremy asked, looking confused. "I thought you'd be with William and the others."  
"I don't think Eleonora wants to be with me for a while now that I found my father." Mary looked at the supercomputer. "I'm searching for Daphne."  
"Have you found anything?"  
"No." Five hours' work had not yielded anything useful. "Do you need the supercomputer for something?"  
"I'm updating the Skid's shields. Answers to defeating X.A.N.A. are probably found from the web, so we have to search there."  
"Okay. I'll let you get to work, then." Mary jumped off the chair and left towards the elevator. "Tell if you need help."  
"Of course." Jeremy sat on the chair and looked at the notes his comrade had made of her searches. "Mary?"  
"Yes?" Mary turned to look at the computer genius.  
"If I find anything about Daphne, I'll tell you first."  
"Thank you."

Mary did not believe that anything would be found, but she appreciated it still.

Now she had to figure out what she would do before dinner.


	6. Webbed

Mary stared at the opposite wall of her room while there was no one in front of it. The last days had been frustrating even though she had gotten to talk with her father more. At the same time, she had seen how Eleonora fought against envy in silence.

She could only hope that Charlie and the others could help her while she was elsewhere.

It was still hard to believe that it all had happened. That she had met the limits of her strength and tried to leave. What had gone into her that night? Why had no one else burned out? Why exactly her, who may have endured the most?

Perhaps that was why exactly her. Her mental endurance had been tested for years when she had been trapped on Lyoko, eminently conscious, even though Aelita had been in a slumber all that time the supercomputer had been shut down.

No one, not even Franz Hopper, knew why or how it had happened. She should have been in a slumber, just like X.A.N.A. and its monsters, but Mary knew to tell something else.

There were no explanations found for the case when her story had been revealed to be solid.

Mary lay down on her bed and hit the adjacent wall with her pillow. After X.A.N.A.'s return, it had started to feel like each twist in the battle kept bringing only new questions without a single answer.

Those thoughts were interrupted when Mary's phone beeped. Against expectations, the text message read, _Everyone, get here. Found something on the web._

"I found a weak signal on the network. It appears to suggest X.A.N.A., perhaps to some hideout of its that helped it survive my multi-agent program. Go quickly, before it disappears."

After a while, Mary stared at the blue Digital Sea through the glass of her Navskid. She could not help wondering if Daphne was out there somewhere. Perhaps the signal would give answers.

After fighting against monsters, the source of the signal turned out to be a virtual world which seemed to be completely separate from Lyoko.  
"What a strange place," Ulrich commented while taking careful steps further away from the Skidbladnir.  
"I've never seen anything like this before," Mary noted. She did not dare to open her wings to look at the area from higher.

The whole sector was silent. No monsters, no nothing. Only mere turquoise, metallic plates on dark stone — if it was stone, that is — as far as the eye could see.  
"Jeremy, do you find any information?" Aelita asked.  
"No. X.A.N.A. appears to have captured this supercomputer, but the whole system of the virtual world appears to be completely separate from it. Nothing is similar to Lyoko's systems."  
"Could Franz help?" Yumi asked. "Maybe he could say something."  
"He's on his way. I sent a few pictures of my findings already, but at least for now he hasn't recognized anything."  
"Wait a minute, does this mean that there is another supercomputer on which someone else has done a virtual world that's completely separate from Lyoko?" Charlie asked.  
"So far it would seem to be so."

They looked around, still hoping that no hostile entity would surprise them.  
"Now I found references of Lyoko!"  
"What did you find?"  
"Variable names that correspond with Lyoko's system's ones. Whoever is behind this, they might know about our system."  
"Who could it be?" Aelita asked.  
"Most likely someone from the Carthage project," Franz's voice joined the conversation all of a sudden. "Despite of whether or not this system's creator has any connections to me or it, this is a worrying finding."  
"Daddy, do you recognize anything about this virtual world?" Aelita asked.  
"Only the variables Jeremy already found. Whatever you do, be careful. I don't know what you may encounter."  
"Shall we investigate the area?" Ulrich asked.  
"Jeremy, can you get the vehicles here?" Odd asked.  
"Unfortunately not, Odd. Most of Lyoko's programs don't work in this new area. The most critical ones work in some sort of a compatibility mode defined by the network, so your states and the Skid are stable."  
"What about our weapons and powers? Do they work?" William asked.  
"I don't know that, either, let alone what happens if you try something that doesn't work. Don't try anything you don't have to."  
William looked at the others. "I could investigate the area easily with Super Smoke if it just works."  
"It's too dangerous, William," Mary said immediately. William frowned at the sudden reply.  
"Mary is right. If something happens, we may not get to return to the scanner," Aelita remarked. She looked at the others. "Out of us, only Ulrich can certainly defend himself. Odd and Yumi, I don't know about you. William, it's probably for the best that you avoid resorting to your sword; it's linked to Super Smoke. The rest of us, on the other hand, at least can't fight."  
"This makes things difficult." Eleonora crossed her arms. "We can't move with possibilities to act this weak."  
"True. If Ulrich goes alone and we get attacked, we're most likely in trouble," Sophie noted.  
"I agree. Return to Skid and wait until I've gotten all the data out. I want you to leave as soon as possible. We can return when we know how dangerous an area we've found," Jeremy said without interrupting his typing even for a moment.

Almost two hours later, the Lyoko Warriors were on Earth and in the lab again.  
"Did you find anything, Jeremy?" Odd asked.  
"Odd, there's a lot of data," Jeremy sighed. "Analyzing all this will take days, especially since most of the code is completely foreign. I'll let you know as soon as we find something important."  
"Go get some rest," Franz said. "We'll stay here to analyze this data."

Once the elevator's doors were closed, Jeremy heard Franz mumble under his breath, "I hope this has nothing to do with the Carthage project..."


	7. Web Searches

Everyone was silent. Each of the Lyoko Warriors who had listened to Jeremy's presentation tried to process the information about the data they had gotten out of the strange virtual world they had found.  
"In addition to this, your later searches in the network have given hints of someone else still being trapped somewhere out there in the parts of the network X.A.N.A. controls," Jeremy continued.  
"Still more people?"  
"Yes. Most likely multiple people."  
"Could Daphne really be out there somewhere?" Mary asked.  
"Potentially. We have to keep searching around this paradox. Most likely we'll find something that way."  
"When will we return to the Digital Sea?" Charlie asked.  
"As soon as possible."  
"Tomorrow evening could be good," Aelita suggested.  
"Yeah," Mary agreed. The others ended up seconding that time as well.

When the group scattered after returning to Kadic, Mary resumed avoiding Eleonora. She still tried to hide her jealousy especially when the topic was possibly finding Daphne, but the dragon girl could already recognize her mannerisms well enough. The matter bothered still and it most likely would not ease unless X.A.N.A. allowed information to flow freely — and that just would never happen.

Mary was sure that she was playing to her enemy's hands while avoiding her comrades, but she could not believe that the opposite would cause less harm. What she feared the most was that she would accidentally say something that would hurt her friend. After all these years, she did not want to lose anyone that way especially when her relations to the original group had turned rather questionable over the months.

Why could nothing be easy?

The following nights were spent investigating the network. They did find data, but not answers.

Then came the morning when Mary got a text message from her father. _When could you visit?  
I don't know, the evenings have been busy. I'll ask the group when we can skip an evening_, she answered.  
 _Ok. Let me know when you can come._

This time, there would be a topic to talk about at breakfast, Mary noted in her mind while getting up from the bed.

"Jeremy, are we still finding new data from the network?" she asked at the cafeteria table.  
"A lot, even. How so?" Jeremy answered.  
"I was just wondering. We've spent many nights on the network already," Mary remarked. "I'm starting to fall behind with homework."  
"Same here," Eleonora added. "Could we have a free night or two so that the teachers won't notice that something's wrong?"  
Jeremy looked at the others. "What do you think?"  
"They're right," Yumi noted. "Let's have a couple of free nights. The data doesn't disappear from the network anyway, right?"  
"Probably not," Jeremy said.  
 _Yes._ Now Mary only had to figure out how she would get to her father without the others noticing.

The first step was to send the reply when nobody saw. _I can come tomorrow evening._  
The reply came soon. _Splendid. See you then._

The next step was to get homework done so that she could sneak out without anyone suspecting anything.

Luck was on her side, for on the next day Sophie spent the evening studying with Aelita, Charlie, Eleonora, Odd and Ulrich. Mary and William both ended up studying on alone in their own rooms, the latter enjoying the solitude in his room that he had momentarily regained. No one noticed anything when Mary went out "for a walk to get some fresh air" and hurried through the sewers to her father's house.

When she made it, in addition to her father, a man she did not remember seeing in the area awaited her. Was this a trap?

No. She had to trust her father. She could never get a single part of her real life back if she acted like an animal of prey and fled now.

"Mary, this is my brother, Andrew," Jeremiah presented. "Andrew, this is my daughter Mary. You never got to meet before... all sorts of things happened."  
"Nice to meet you, niece." Andrew nodded to Mary.  
"Nice to meet you, uncle Andrew," Mary said. "I didn't know you were in the area."  
"I arrived just a few days ago," Andrew told.  
"Let's sit down, shall we? There's no use for us to stand here." Jeremiah smiled wider than Mary remembered him having smiled.

When they had sat down, Mary asked, "How long do you plan to be here?"  
Andrew smiled. "It depends on how long Jeremiah is planning to. I'm getting old, so we decided that I'll move to live here at least for now."  
"Really?" Surprised, Mary turned to look at her father.  
Jeremiah nodded. "Really. I know that there isn't much left of our family. The little we have left... we need to cherish it."  
Mary nodded, still trying to digest the information she had gotten. "Yeah... yeah, we do.

She could not talk about this to her friends. Not now when Eleonora suffered from her own situation.

And if not now, then never either.


End file.
